The Resurrection Fact: Responding to Modern Critics by John J. Bombaro

THE RESURRECTION FACT reminds me a lot of the classical works on evidential apologetics--especially the classic by John Warwick Montgomery, [[ASIN:0840756410 Faith Founded on Fact: Essays in Evidential Apologetics]]. I found the THE RESURRECTION FACT to be a well-written book, which discusses the historical evidence for key beliefs of the Christian faith--especially the Resurrection. I'm not sure I saw anything really new or enlightening, but it's a solid set of essays on classical evidential apologetics.

There's an interesting section--don't miss it!  It's in Chapter 2, "Explaining the Empty Tomb."  In this chapter, the author briefly mentions the question of presuppositions. In discussing Ehrman's rejection of miracles, the author notes that Ehrman starts with the presumption of naturalism, and of course, then disparages any miraculous events.  Ehrman, on the other hand, accuses the Christian of believing in miracles--not because of historical fact, but just beause of their prior believe.  

I wish the above subject of starting assumptions would have been explored more deeply; it's a really critical subject, which goes to the heart of apologetics. It's a little bit of a tricky subject, but worth the investment of time.

The non-believer professes to take a scientific view of history, but what is the basis for their research?  On what grounds to they invetigate or come to conclusions about ANYTHING?   If the universe is one giant accident, the entire foundation of science is undermined. Anything can happen at any time; there is no reason to think anything should be the same from one minute to the next. There is no "uniformity of nature."  

Here's the apologetic key:  An unbeliever, in order to begin to argue historical events, has to first assume the Christian's position in a God of order and design, in order to have any foundation to argue anything at all!  (And of course, any basic for morality is gone surely gone down the drain as well.)  If the Christian allows the unbeliever to begin discussing historical evidence, he is "giving away the store."

Anyone interested in Christian apolgetics would be wise to become familiar with presuppositional apologetics. I recommend in particular the fun read by Greg Bahnsen [[ASIN:0915815281 Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith]].  Probably not as much "fun" but excellent are the meaty works by Cornelius Van Til.

If you get a chance, listen to the classic audio debate on the existence of God, which took place at UC Irvine in 1985:  [[ASIN:0967831776 The Great Debate: Does God Exist?]].

Advance Review copy courtesy of the publisher.